Friday, September 16, 2005

Father Bush: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you will let me do to your country."

President Bush concludes his remarks following his nationally televised address from Jackson Square in New Orleans, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005. Bush announced a new reconstruction plan to help rebuild the area damaged by Hurrican Katrina. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

"Normal is racist, Normal is faces- In high places, Without high faces,

Normal is white, Normal is Right, Normal is everything,We see in sight,

Normal is poverty, Normal is violence, Normal is silence, In fear, of violence,

Normal is us, Normal is them, Normal is cops, Normal is sin,

Normal is love, Normal is hate, Normal is never- Being able to relate,

Normal is me, Normal is you, Normal isn't normal, Or that's not true..."

(...)

Yahoo! News

Bush: Rebuilding Must Address Inequality

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 31 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Friday that the Gulf Coast must be rebuilt with an eye toward wiping out the persistent poverty and racial injustice plain to all in the suffering of the black and the poor in Hurricane Katrina's wake.

tell me: what has his administration done about this over the last 5 years?

except be the first President in history to refuse to meet with the NAACP?

well, i guess it's a start...

of what i'm not sure...

"As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality," Bush said during a national prayer service with other political leaders and religious figures from the affected region at the National Cathedral."

he is using religion to add ballast to his hot air.

Also Friday, White House officials said that taxpayers will pay the bill for the massive reconstruction program for the hurricane ravaged-Gulf Coast and that the huge expense will worsen the nation's budget deficit.

of course it will.

and then we'll have a massive recession, and then martial law.

duh.

Several dozen evacuees and first responders, all from New Orleans, filled one side wing. The president and his wife, Laura, sat solemnly in a front pew along with Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne.

being solemn is cool, it shows they really care.

and really, that'll do.

Before Bush's remarks, Bishop T.D. Jakes, head of 30,000-member Potter's House church in Dallas, delivered a powerful sermon in which he called upon Americans to "dare to discuss the unmentionable issues that confront us" and to not rest until the poor are raised to an acceptable living standard.

jakes be lyin', 'less jakes be tryin'...

"Katrina, perhaps, she has done something to this nation that needed to be done," Jakes said. "We can no longer be a nation that overlooks the poor and the suffering, that continues past the ghetto on our way to the Mardi Gras."

after all, this sets a great example of what we should do to the poor...

err, i mean, do for the poor...

Bush, faced with continuing questions about whether help would have been sent more quickly to the storm zone if most victims had not been poor and black, echoed those themes in his brief remarks.

hmph.

oh well... i'm guessing they apologize?

i mean, white-liberal-guilt is awesome...

unless it's enough...

"Some of the greatest hardships fell upon citizens already facing lives of struggle, the elderly, the vulnerable and the poor," he said. "As we rebuild homes and businesses, we will renew our promise as a land of equality and decency and one day Americans will look back at the response to Hurricane Katrina and say that our country grew not only in prosperity but in character and justice."

or not. whatever.

As on Thursday, when Bush called for "bold action" to overcome poverty and discrimination, he offered no specific actions that should be taken.

through my extensive black krishnaverse research and blogging, i've noticed something that is at best a pattern, and at worst... well, who the hell knows.

how come all the website links that make the government look bad are really, really long (see above and all the way below) while most others are not? are they easier to track this way? more annoying to post?

here's something that's supposed to tell us how to justify feeling bad, after all, this article tells us it's "normal" and just a sign of the times.

Yahoo! News

Consumer sentiment slumps after Katrina

By Ros Krasny 2 hours, 12 minutes ago

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence plummeted to a 13-year low in early September, battered by record high gasoline prices and the full force of Hurricane Katrina, a report showed on Friday. (cont'd...)